As several nations celebrate V-E Day, the victory of the Allied powers over Nazi Germany some 70 years ago, Russia quietly continues to develop its’ military for the 21st Century. Meet the PAK TA, Russia’s Special Purpose Heavy-Lift Aircraft, which is designed to ferry the Armata main battle tank, and its ammunition, to anywhere in the world.
According to sources, “the new design specification from the Military-Industrial Commission in Moscow, a transport aircraft, dubbed PAK TA, will fly at supersonic speeds (up to 2,000 km/h) and will boast an impressively high payload of up to 200 tons. It will also have a range of at least 7,000 kilometers.
The PAK TA program envisages 80 new cargo aircraft to be built by 2024. This means in a decade Russia’s Central Command will be able to place a battle-ready armored army anywhere, Expert Online reports, citing a source in the military who attended the closed meeting.”
Together with other new combat systems, such as the Kurganats-25 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Bumerang (Boomerang) 8×8 wheeled armored personnel carrier, and Borei class ballistic missile submarine, Russia seems to be spending vast quantities of its dwindling hard currency on advanced weapons systems, all designed to keep pace with recent platforms continually being shown by the West, China and other nations.
For this year’s Victory Day parade, which celebrates its triumph over Nazi Germany some 70 years ago, Russia took the wrap off of its latest armored fighting vehicle, the T-14 Armata tank. According to Army Times, “the new tank will weigh 48 tons and could hit speeds of more than 50 miles per hour, according to a spec sheet released by Russia’s TASS news agency and translated by the U.S. Army’s Foreign Military Studies Office. The three-person tank will be able to fire up to 12 rounds per minute from a 125 mm main gun that can fire multiple types of munitions, including guided missiles, with a range topping out at 8,000 meters.
High-tech highlights include circular-view cameras, a heat sensor and the Afganit active protection complex, which reportedly uses radar to detect incoming threats and destroys them with a rocket.
The T-14’s chassis can support a frame more than 15 tons heavier than what it carries, according to the FMSO. The extra capacity would allow the system to support modified tanks, or serve as the basis of a fleet of vehicles, allowing for a smaller supply chain.
Variants of the Armata could include a 152 mm self-propelled howitzer, a bridge layer, a mine layer, various transport vehicles, even a “launch vehicle in system for heavy rocket propelled flame throwers,” according to the March issue of FMSO’s OE Watch magazine.
A Russian military official said the tank will enter service next year. Within 15 years, more than 2,300 Armatas are set to reach Russian troops.
Sales of the tank to other nations could begin in five years. No potential buyers have been discussed; India makes its own version of Russia’s current T-90 tank under a licensing agreement.”
Despite a slowing economy and drop in oil prices, its interesting that Russia still plans to increase its defense spending relative to its GDP and intends to purchase thousands of main battle tanks over the next few years. Who it perceives as a threat is still anyone’s guess and the west will likely see more saber rattling in the years ahead as it attempts to once again become a superpower. It was this type of strategy that bankrupted the Soviet Union in the late 80s and early 90’s, which led to its collapse and the end of the first Cold War. Accelerated defense spending, the invasion of Ukraine, and chilly international relations could usher in the start of a second Cold War, the expansion of NATO into additional former Warsaw Pact territories, and confrontations in the Arctic region as several nations lay claim to its vast underwater resources. (Composite image shows the T-14 tank on the left and its sister T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicle on the right)
They say winter is the roughest time of the year for the elderly and lately those words seem to be ringing true. Yesterday, famed German tank ace, Otto Carius, passed away at the age of 92 from a brief but serious illness.
Carius was a German tank ace within the German Army who fought during World War II and was credited with destroying more than 150 tanks. He was a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub). The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves were awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.
After the war he studied pharmacy at Heidelberg University. In 1956 he started his own pharmacy shop called Tiger Apotheke in Herschweiler-Pettersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, named after the Tiger tank, which he managed till 2011. He also wrote a book about his own experience in the war, entitled Tigers in the Mud.
According to a posting on the french-based Mil-info-over-blog, Bryan Evans, the one-man shop behind the rise of Stretton Models and Tank Museum, passed away at the age of 72 on January 8th, 2015. At one time, we were a big importer of his line, who created a wide array of 1:43/1:50 scale military vehicles which can still be viewed on our site. Several years ago, when Solido stopped making military vehicles – which served as the basis for many of his creations – and in conjunction with his poor health, we had to suspend their availability, hoping one day we could resurrect the line.
We will miss Bryan, who was a true gentleman and spent many hours on the phone with us discussing the industry at-large. We extend our condolences to his family.
More information concerning his passing can be found here:
Now that Brad Ptt has tied the knot, work has leaked out concerning his next acting gig, a feature film called Fury. Set in the latter stages of WWII, Pitt plays a Sherman tank commander, who must lead his lone tank into battle against a horde of Germans making a desperate attack.
With the retirement of the SR-71 several years ago, and growing speculation regarding what has come to be known as Aurora soaring high over the American southwest, it was perhaps just a matter of time before the USAF finally lifted the veil of secrecy concerning their hugh-hush secret projects. Back In November, the Air Force confirmed that they were developing a new fleet of stealthy, high-speed reconnaissance aircraft that could fly at Mach 6 using Scramjet technology. Dubbed simply as the SR-72, the new midnight black aircraft may even field strike capabilities, utilizing Lockheed Martin’s High Speed Strike Weapon (HSSW), which is essentially a hypersonic missile concept.
From a collector’s standpoint, it seems logical that the SR-72 will become one of the next highly coveted replicas enthusiasts will be yearning for, perhaps one day supplanting the SR-71 as their centerpiece reconnaissance plane. For now, proof-of-concept images will have to be revealed first beyond the handful of artist’s renderings now being distributed.
For more information on the SR-72, please visit this site: http://www.airforce-technology.com/features/feature-lockheed-martin-unveils-sr-72-successor-sr-71-spy-plane/
For those of you who have known us from the beginning, every so often we get the urge to tear down everything we’ve built and start again, so that we can serve our clientele better than before. With technology continuing to evolve, particularly in the area of e-commerce, and design inspirations pushing us forward, we’ve decided to begin the arduous process of creating our next rev of The Motor Pool. Currently, we hope to launch the new site sometime this summer, once we feel comfortable that we’ve worked out all of the bugs that inevitably creep into the design process and are fully able to move our existing files to the new service.
Some of the new features we plan to roll out are a more stylized home page, fully integrated blog, better search functionality, a more streamlined order processing and fulfillment system, videos, mobile optimization including a responsive template, more captivating product and category pages, and a variety of back office enhancements that will improve the customer and administrator experience.
We will certainly post more information once we are further along in the development of the new site, including snap shots of the work in progress, and rest assured you can still peruse our product portfolio, order merchandise and check your records on our existing site. We’re still here to serve your diecast needs.
Several important developments came to the fore this past week, among them two fundamental changes to the way in which the US Navy plans to fight and protect the seven seas in the 21st Century. First off, the inaugural stealth destroyer, DDG-1000 USS Zumwalt, is currently undergoing rigorous testing by the US Navy and its creator, the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. Scheduled to join the fleet in 2016, the Zumwalt employs a stealthy design, boasts fewer crew members, and is much more capable than its predecessors in helping to defend US interests.
More information concerning the Zumwalt class of destroyers can be found here:
Also undergoing testing is a rail gun, which is currently fitted aboard the Joint High-Speed Vessel USNS Millinocket (JHSV 3). The rail gun is an especially important change in anti-aircraft defense measures, since it would allow surface vessels to once again sail closer to land masses and no longer fear potent anti-ship missile systems currently deployed by a number of nations. It could also defeat saturation-based air-to-ship missile attacks out to a distance of 100 miles that was accepted as a sound fundamental plan-of-action by certain countries. Its not clear if the rail gun can be retrofitted to the current fleet of US naval vessels and perhaps replace aging systems such as the radar guided Phalanx CIWS gatling gun, which fires 20mm shells out to a range of a mile or so.
If Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has his way, a deep set of funding cuts will affect the US military, spanning everything from base closures and personnel draw down to retirement of several mainstay aircraft. On the chopping block is the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft as well as the Lockheed U-2 spy plane, two aircraft that have served the USAF well for several decades.
The new cuts are designed to make the military smaller and more nimble, rely upon several soon-to-be-fielded new weapons systems such as the Ford Class aircraft carrier and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and make more use of unmanned aerial vehicles. It remains to be seen if Congress will authorize these cuts, since base closures always have a deleterious affect on the political constituency for each affected state.
We’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy New Year and a joyous holiday season. As always, we look forward to serving your needs in the year ahead!
